We, as gamers, always have it easy when it comes to story based single player campaigns. We rarely have to think outside the box or figure anything out for ourselves. There’s always a helping hand to explain everything. Far Cry 3’s theme of insanity breaks the trend – we learn never to take what we see at face value.
I feel Far Cry 3 has been misunderstood. Even if you take the story literally you still have a great gaming experience but you have to look deeper to get the full picture. An ending that strikes questions into the mind of the gamer is the best any can get. Now if you’ve yet to complete Far Cry 3 I warn you the remainder of this article will contain major plot spoilers.
With that said it’s time to move on to fully analyse the in depth story. At face value we have a dare devil Hollywood stereotype yet to find his purpose in life thrown into a lush tropical island that resembles a somewhat movie setting. Crazy drug addicted pirates hold your friends and family in hostage and you look to the strange native tribe to gain the power you need to set them free.
Sounds very much like a blockbuster movie – or even a fantasy, and that’s what Jason sees. From his perspective he’s sees a fantasy that he is in control of. The need to save Citra, to kill the insane Vaas and destroy the island’s terrible operations. But you can’t do it without the power given to you by the tribe, focusing around the mind and a magical key and knife.
All a little too good to be true? It’s easy to get lost in a fantasy where you become the hero. Where you are the good destroying the bad. Jason in a way looses sight of reality. This reality is his friends and family which he needs to save to get back home. But he switches that, in his mind, to becoming the ultimate warrior.
It’s quite clear that by the end of the game Jason himself is the definition of insanity. Vaas, and even Hoyt, at first are shown to be crazy mad men that just want to watch the world burn. But in a way, on Rook Island, they are the realists, they are smart and the closest to being sane. Vaas even mocks Jason, “is my sister going to make a warrior out of you?”. He knows that what Citra speaks is quite literally lies.
On the subject of Vass his death is abrupt. Or did he die physically, did we only see the figment of Vaas in Jason’s mind die? His presence was a key role in the game and we never managed to fully understand his character. I would like to see this as an opportunity.
At first my theory sounds over complicated but during the game we are given hints as quotes from Alice In Wonderland that home in on this idea of insanity and not to take it at face value. `I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid, sir’ said Alice, `because I’m not myself, you see.’ For once we have to figure things out for ourselves – a nice change to video game story telling.
At last we reach the end of our fantasy driven journey. We are faced with a choice in the game but also we are faced with realisation. Do we accept that this fantasy has gone too far, far enough to slit the throats of your friends, and come to terms that Jason has been driven insane? Or do we ignore this realisation and turn our backs on reality to fully live this fantasy? The latter only stabs us in the back.
So what has Far Cry 3 taught me? Well, It’s made me learn to never take a game at face value even how easy we are drip fed the story. Analysis is needed and questions should be asked. There’s always a hidden message, a moral, you just need to kill it, fuck it, find it.
